Seasonal dispersal of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi by spiny rats in a neotropical forest

Many species of neotropical rodents consume and subsequently disperse viable spores of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Consequently, rodents may be important determinants of both AMF and tree community composition in neotropical forests. We examined the influence of both availability of other food resources and season on the consumption and subsequent dispersal of AMF spores by Proechimys semispinosus (the Central American spiny rat) from seven island populations located in Gatun Lake, Panama over a 13-month period. For each island population, we examined the relationship between monthly spore occurrence in fecal pellets and monthly density of trees and lianas producing ripe fruit. During the last 3 months of this study, five islands were provisioned with extra food, while two islands remained unmanipulated to test experimentally whether spiny rats consumed AMF only as an alternative resource when primary resources (fruit) were scarce. Consumption of AMF was highly seasonal, with spores being most common in fecal samples at the end of the rainy season and least common at the end of the dry season. Cross-correlation analysis and logistic regression analysis indicated that spore occurrence in feces varied synchronously among islands and was related positively to soil moisture and unrelated to natural fruit availability. After inoculation with AMF spores isolated from feces, AMF colonized roots of Paspalum notatum (bahia grass) grown in sterilized soil, and total dry weights of host plants increased, confirming the viability of AMF spores passed by spiny rats. The ubiquity of viable spores from several species of AMF occurring in feces of P. semispinosus implicates this rodent as an important AMF disperser. Furthermore, dispersal of AMF spores by spiny rats was not limited to ephemeral periods of primary resource scarcity, thus suggesting that P. semispinosus may influence tree seedling survival by making spores of their mutualistic fungi available throughout the rainy season, a period critical to the establishment of newly germinated seedlings.